New painkiller is now underway, one week in and appears to be having some impact , with no obvious side effects at present.
Celecoxib is a prescription-strength nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug , it seems to be used most commonly as an arthritis drug , but also used for post operative anti-inflammatory use , as in our case.
What makes it a more interesting though, it that in conjunction with various other agents, it is being used in a number of cancer trials, including skin and lung cancer.
Apparently, its a COX-2 inhibitor that in a recent study showed a 62 percent reduction in non-melanoma skin cancers, including basal cell carcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas.
Celecoxib may emerge as a potent chemopreventive agent for lung cancer, according to a recent study in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Researchers tested celecoxib, a COX-2 inhibitor, among patients who were former smokers and found a significant benefit in bronchial health as measured by the Ki-67 labeling index, a marker of cellular proliferation or growth, as well as a number of other biomarkers. The findings follow a previous report published in Cancer Prevention Research that showed a similar effect on Ki-67 among former smokers and current smokers (Kim et al., Feb. 2010).
Going from men to mice – a quote from a paper in the International Journal of Cancer in 2004: “In mice implanted with mesothelioma, celecoxib treatment significantly increased average survival from 45 days to 62 days, the researchers note, and there were three long-term (more than 120 days) survivors among the treated mice.”
Appreciate this may have absolutely no supporting evidence for people, can’t see anything on any other trials, but then again, haven’t seen any mention of our alternative painkiller of ibuprofen even doing anything with mice !!!
Ref: Catalano A, Graciotti L, et al: Preclinical evaluation of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agent celecoxib on malignant mesothelioma chemoprevention. Int J Cancer 2004;109: 322-328.
Related articles
- Drug may prevent lung cancer in former smokers (scienceblog.com)
- Anti-Inflammatory Drugs to Treat and Control Breast Cancer (health.yahoo.net)
